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Imagine a computer program that can predict if a criminal will strike again. Now, imagine that program isn’t accurate. ProPublica senior reporters and editors poke holes in one of the dozens of risk assessment programs that determine the fate of defendants across the United States. They found that one popular tool incorrectly flagged black defendants as likely reoffenders twice as often as it did for white defendants, exposing some to longer incarceration times. getAbstract recommends this revealing analysis to anyone enthusiastic or skeptical about the use of algorithms in the American judicial system.

In this summary, you will learn

How risk assessment programs suffer from inherent bias,

What factors influence risk scores, and

How risk scores affect sentencing.

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Summary

Police arrested Brisha Borden and Vernon Prater separately for petty theft. But a computer program said Borden, who’s black, was more likely to reoffend, although Prater, who’s white, had a worse record. While Borden stayed out of trouble, Prater ended up serving time in prison for subsequent burglary and theft.

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Thus, Machine Bias (that is, programmed bias) is simply an extension of faulty individual and societal biases; which are based on biased laws (still in existence) created with intent by biased individuals within that society for the dominant system to function as it does.